The Monster Squad

Some kids who are really into those old Universal horror flicks have this club they call The Monster Squad. But soon enough their knowledge about how to kill some of these legendary creatures comes in mighty handy in their small town.

Andre Gower and Robby Kiger head the group and it's a good thing their services were needed right at this point in time. By the look of them in another year these kids would be hitting puberty full stride, one of them Ryan Lambert is already showing inclination of interest in the opposite sex.

Best scene in the film is during the climax when a virgin is needed to read an incantation and when it doesn't quite work because the virgin's not quite a virgin Gower's little sister is brought in as a pinch hitter.

Duncan Regehr makes a fine, menacing Dracula topping the cast performance list. Regehr plays it absolutely straight for the young audience this film was aimed at.

With an original premise based on how Bud&Lou got tangled up with all their monsters in Abbott&Costello Meet Frankenstein and a climax which liberally borrowed from the Back To The Future films, The Monster Squad is still an enjoyable film for young audiences.

"The Monster Squad" is fondly remembered by many, especially guys like myself who actually were part of "monster clubs" in the 60s. Fueled by the release of classic Universal horror films of the 30s to television at the time, and the ubiquitous Famous Monsters of Filmland Magazine as well as the arrival of the great Aurora Plastics "long box" monster models....there were monster clubs nationwide. One suspects that director Fred Dekker was influenced by all this horrormania when choosing to helm TMS in 1987.

TMS hasn't aged particularly well. A recent viewing after first seeing this in a theater on it's original release reveals a number of problems with the film as a whole. TMS can never seem to decide exactly what it's going for. Horror? Comedy? Adults? Kids? For every silly moment and laugh, there's genuine unpleasantness. Characters are easily disposed of and instantly forgotten, such as the cop who gets blown up by Dracula. One minute he's spouting one liners and the next he's killed in a fairly grim fashion. No other character reacts to this in any fashion. The three vampire mistresses show up in classic Universal style, but are so obviously tacked on to the climax to provide the resident "badass" kid with a couple of kill shots we forget about them immediately. Only two are shown killed, so what happened to the third? The monsters, lovingly re-imagined by the late makeup genius Stan Winston, are so easily destroyed that we don't really care about them. They're simply there to be killed by a gang of kids, Scooby-Doo style. Only these kids use real weapons instead of their wits. Easier to shoot the Creature (known here as Gillman) and call it a day.

TMS appears to have been heavily edited since the "extras" on the new DVD release show a number of scenes that were cut. The simple plot of TMS could have used some of the deleted scenes to help fill the many, many plot holes in the final version of the film. What remains to be viewed really does play out like a cartoon. Heavily Un-PC in places (mostly some gay slurs hurled by resident mega-jerk actor Jason Hervey) firmly root TMS in the awesome 80s. Two things to look for here though, the startling reveal of Dracula as half-man and half-bat lying on the floor, and the jaw-dropping "head lift" of the little sister by Dracula, calling the tyke a "bitch".

The real hero of this monster mash is Eugene. He's little, has a dog named Pete, and no one, except for the US Army pays any attention to his encounters with the monsters. He has a couple of the movie's best lines, including the great "creature stole my Twinkie". In any event, TMS is still worth a viewing, decent effects for the time in which it was made and the natural inclination to see this homage to the Universal monsters as a low-budget rip-off of "The Goonies".

A good Halloween treat for adults who want to share a few thrills with their kids without excess amounts of violence and bloodshed. Despite the flaws, TMS still invokes that shuddery frisson in those who remember the good old days.

Having grown up a child of the 80's crazes, I happen to love just about anything 80's...even if for no other reason than to now poke fun at it. Monster Squad is no different. I absolutely LOVED this movie when it came out and watched it over and over again. A few years back I decided to watch it again and, well, I still loved it. Ok, so it was a lot cheesier than I remembered, but it's still great fun.

Monster Squad has some great dialogue and really entertaining scenes. Plus, you've got all the classic monsters which truly make this film worth watching.

I highly recommend anyone who has a love for anything 80's, or just like fun, simple movies to check this out. It really is worth it!

One hundred years ago, Dracula and other monsters survive to the attack of Dr. Van Helsing and his men to his castle with a magical amulet. In the present days, Dracula travels to the United States and arrives in a small town. He summons the Werewolf, the Mummy, the Swamp Thing and Frankenstein's creature to help him to retrieve the amulet.

In the town, a man claims that he is the werewolf and goes to the police station to ask to be locked up in a cell. Meanwhile a mummy vanishes from the local museum and police detective Del (Stephen Macht) is assigned to investigate the case. When his son Sean (Andre Gower), who is a monster fan, learns the news, he joins his friends Patrick (Robby Kiger), Horace (Brent Chalem) and Rudy (Ryan Lambert) in his monster club to read a Van Helsing's journal that was given by his mother. However the book is written in German and they are not able to translate it. So they asks for help from their weird neighbor that they call Scary German Guy (Leonardo Cimino) and they discover that they need to recover the amulet and a virgin to get rid off Dracula and the monsters. Meanwhile Sean's little sister Phoebe (Ashley Bank), who is unsuccessfully trying to join the club, befriends Frankenstein's creature. The unlike group brings Patrick's sister (Lisa Fuller), who claims that is virgin, to read the passage that sends the monsters to the limbo. Will they be successful in their intent?

"The Monster Squad" is a highly entertaining cult movie with a funny story that entwines adventure, dark comedy and horror. This film is also a tribute to the Universal Monsters. There is a touching moment when the Scary German Guy tells to the kids that he has experience with monsters and we see a concentration camp number on his arm. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Deu a Louca nos Monstros" ("The Monsters Have Gone Crazy")

Note: On 24 July 2016, I saw this film again.

Note: On 09 Sep 2018, I saw this film again.

I first saw this movie in 1990 on Sky TV when i was about 12,and obviously loved it. when i was young i used to wish me and my mates were grouped together in a common gang like Sean and Co. they seemed to have so much in common and always had a good laugh, thats the special thing about kids films from the eighties, with Licence to Drive and Goonies being top of the list having the same feel about them as The Moster Squad. films nowadays for young ones are not like this anymore as most will agree, they have done away with the cheesy dialog and juvenile relations and replaced it with complicated storylines and big budget effects that really dont make them watchable anymore.

Basic plot:

a group of youngsters from the US form a squad to stop evil taking over the world by following an ancient ritual with an unusual amulet. in the meantime they are faced with Dracula,Wolfman and a mummy along with a couple of other creatures of the night to save the world.

it really is a simple formula that works very well and is a must see for kids and yourself.

Note to fans of this film and future fans of this film: Brent Chalem who played Horace (Fat Kid) is no longer with us,which was quite sadening for me as i felt i knew him when i was younger as i watched the film several times as a kid and these kids were a cult for me. He died in 1997 - whilst working for a US legal firm - in Las Vegas,Nevada,USA, he was just 22 years old. he had a rather short career so theres not much info anywhere on the web about him....but i feel someone somewhere who knew him could provide us with a little more information about him and the circumstances surrounding his untimely death and post it here on IMDB.

Go get this, you'll love it. RIP Brent Chalem.